Adler Tag
 

This morning,August 10th 1940 the Luftwaffe's attack on RAF targets began, marking the start of the Battle of Britain proper.

Spare a small thought for your appreciation of "The Few" and what they were about to achieve over that small but intense period in 1940- against all odds- today please gents.

Hear hear

Puts a lump in my throat just thinkiing about the terror those poor blokes must have gone through.

Thanks for the reminder mach 78

Never before, in the field of human conflict, has so much been owed by so many, to so few.

Winston S Churchill, October 1940

...to which some of them, said "He must have heard about our back-pay owing".

The sheer effort it must have taken to fly three, four or five sorties a day, initially on very few hours' experience in fighters, seeing the attrition rate among colleagues, in aircraft only semi-serviceable after the last sortie, against some very experienced and battle-hardened pilots astonishes me.

Churchill's other appropriate words on the subject were, of course, "...this was their finest hour".

Many of us in here today, with our hours, would have been considered 'aces' - thus all the more humbling to think just how inexperienced many of 'the few' were, flying very high-powered aircraft, in a life-and-death situation.

But, and whilst not discounting the contribution made by fighter command, it might also pay to remember/reflect that during the nights of the 1000 bomber raids more bomber flight crew lost their lives every single night than were killed during the whole of the Battle of Britain !

Many's the time I've passed overhead Dresden, on our schduled service to Prague, and whilst sitting there at FL's in the +300's, in short sleeve shirt, drinking tea, watching the glass stuff do its magic w.r.t navigation et al...... I've thought of those blokes in their Lancasters, freezing cold, no nav aids, scared, being shot at from the ground and in the air, and in an aircraft full of high explosives and petrol - it brings me out in goosebumps every time !

Quite right Crashdive wrt to the Lancasters and their crews.However the fate of the war had already been decided by then.
In 1940, Britain stood alone, with the only thing preventing Operation Sealion (the invasion)was this Thin Blue Line, The Narrow Margin.
America had not yet entered the war, and Russia had still to be invaded.
Defeat was on the cards, a real possibility.

The country was, quite simply, fighting for it's survival.

Hate to be pedantic but Adlertag (Eagle Day) is officially recognised as 13th August 1940. The assault by the Lufftwaffe was codenamed Adlerangriffe (Eagle attack). It lasted for three days and culminated in the massive attack on the 15th August, launched due to a misunderstanding by a junior officer who thought the weather was good enough, while Reichsmarschall Goering had ordered a hold - though this was not known to him. This attack was made against the whole East Coast of England and Scotland. The main thrust however was directed against Hawkinge, Hornchurch, Biggin Hill, Croydon and Kenley.

I was a small boy living just 4 miles from Croydon and re-call that day because of the masses of bombers and escorting fighters. The aerial fights that followed remain indeliblely imprinted in my mind.

That is why, now, 60 years on I personally give thanks to those who flew in a battle that will never be fought again. A battle led by leaders, both in the air and on the ground. This was indeed, Their Finest Hour

The Few get fewer, but the many can ensure that they will always be remembered.



[This message has been edited by InFinRetirement (edited 10 August 2000).]

Gentlemen, may the skin of your ass never cover the head of a banjo.

I am both proud and relieved that my country was not defeated.

Might this be a time to recognise that those who died in the air sixty years ago were all aviators?

There is nothing unpatriotic about admiring the sacrifice made by the soldiers of a former enemy.

Isn't it time to admire the courage of the dead, and to give thanks that we were too young (or not yet born) to be among them?

Personally, I'm deeply disgusted that the National Lottery refused to pay for a memorial to the Few - on the grounds that it was not 'nationally representative' yet they shelled out hundreds of millions of pounds to the Millenium Dome and dubious 'marginal' organisations. :mad: :mad:

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:) Happiness is a warm L1011 :)

sobering thought.

more Englishmen died during the first day of the Somme in 1916 than in the whole of the Battle of Britain.

zzz:

Point taken, but the overall Bomber Command casualties in the offensive on Germany were more or less the same as those incurred on the first day of the Somme.

The bomber crews went 'over the top' night after night, which is not to belittle the soldiers on the Somme, but to point up the enormous, day after day, courage of those aircrews.

Whenever we pass a war memorial or a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior it is decent to pause a while, to think, and to be thankful.

Infin, I knew that Adlerangriff was to come into force on receipt of the codeword Adler Tag, which was, I understand on the 10th, but with the attacks themselves beginning on the 13th.

Whereas Battle Of Britain day is always held on Sept 15th, interestingly as you pointed out , there was a massive attack on August 15th.This in fact represented the day of maximum effort by the Luftwaffe when no less than 1786 sorties were flown in 24hrs.

It must have been fascinating, but frightening to a small boy to have been witness to such a sight.

I'm not British so there is no emotional
baggage in saying this.

The 'few' quite simply preserved freedom and
democracy in Britain, yes, but ultimately in
Europe as a whole, ironically even the enemy
of the time owes it current status to it's
defeat back then. It would not enjoy the same
freedom and prosperity now, if it had won in 1940
If Britain had lost in 1940. Europe
would have been fought over by two gigantic
and terrible ideologies. Communism and Nazism.
The winner would control ALL of Europe, Middle
East and most surrounding countries.
Quite simply without Britain to act as a base for
America when it came into the war, if it came into
the war. Either the Soviet Union would have swept
up to and across the Channel or the Nazis would
have defeated them without the distraction of a war
on three fronts. Without the United States involvement
that would be our fate to this day. Critics of American
foreign policy please note, this fact still applies.
I'm not American either by the way.

So in my opinion it is impossible to
overstate the importance of the Battle of Britain
for all of us in Europe.

We owe them our freedom and for many of us
or lives. No amount of revisionism can change
that. It was the single most important moment
in modern European and world history.

We would do well to remember that every day.

When I fly out over the Channel and see what "the Few" must have seen every day, it makes me pause a second.

It is apt that we should all remember their sacrifice and the heroic nature of their endeavour.

Yossarian? You and me both, each time I descend into Gatwick I start off in the 20's imagining the view from a Flying Fortress, then into the ten's with the white cliffs in view I look into the sun and imagine the feelings that a rookie pilot in a Hurricane or Spitfire must have felt wondering if an ME109 was about to end my chosen career path.

It is so sad that the youth of our country no longer even know what a Spitfire is or what it meant to their freedom. Such is the effect of 'Political Correctness'.

All my respect and deepest condolance for the british fighter and bomber pilots, the civilians and soldiers.

When i fly to the UK, i feel sorry for what we Germans did to the world and to your country.

But I´d like to remind you (esp. "Crash Dive"), that the bombers over Dresden, Bremen, Hamburg and Köln (Cologne) didn´t kill Nazis, but civilians!! (a lot of them)!!

War is a dirty business

For more info on the actual history of events, check out the day by day account as recorded in Fighter Commands diary of events at www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940 Glad to see that the Daily Mail has supported the BoB Historical society attempt to raise funds for a plinth recording the names of all of "the few" at Victoria embankment on the Thames. I think they have raised approx £200,000 and require a further £50,000.

War is anything but fair or clean. Lots of people payed the ultimate price so that each one of us that have born here in this or other continent could enjoy what we enjoy today and what the kids and younger people take for granted.
Almost thirty million people died. From all nationalities , races and religion.
And what people do today ? Don't even remember.
In seventy of eighty years from now , this will be just another chapter on a history book. Most of us will be gone to the final flight and almost no one will be able to pass on why we are free or why millions of people died because they were in the wrong place or the wrong religion or just out of luck.

German or English...don't matter. They all deserve respect for what they did and died for.

I cant imagine (and will never be able) of what those men went trough wen they were going to a Bomb Raid over some city with the uncertainty of the next second. Every second could be the last one...and that for me is pretty much a damn situation.

Guv

Surely the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight exists as a official memorial to all aircrew who flew during WWII. I can think of nothing more fitting.